Only true Malaysians can appreciate something as simple as a quashed cili padi, hot white rice and soya sauce. It is not just any type of cili padi but the real Malaysian cabai burung, grown in our backyards. Not the Thai bird’s eyes cili, not the long thin red and green small cili but the green tiny cabai burung.
When squashed with a spoon, it lets off a potent ‘green chillies’ fragrance. The white rice has to be hot so that the heat from the rice, coupled with the heat from the green chillies cause all your pores to open up. You can feel the heat in the pores of your head, your face and even your ears. Just imagine a volcano or geyser bursting with steam.
Everyone has their own favourite brand of soya sauce. Right now, this is my favourite brand. I read about it in The Star and how they traditionally brew the soya sauce in wooden barrels. The cost is slightly more expensive than those large, glass bottled, factory produced brands but it is great because it is not too salty and has a slightly sweetish taste. Perfect to be sprinkled over white rice. Heng Lee soya sauce is made in Penang and I doubt it is sold in other states. I bought mine from Sunshine Farlim and Tesco or Giant do not carry this brand.
I have been watching way too many TVB dramas and am currently watching The Gem of Life. In one of the episode, this guy, Sunny fried eggs with canned fried dace. He treated Calvin (Bowie Lam) to a meal with the fried dace with eggs and I have not been able to get the fried dace out of my mind. I do not normally like fried dace because I find the taste too overpowering. Moreover, with all the news about toxic chemicals in canned foods imported from China, I had stay off fried dace with black beans for a long time already. But like all true TVB drama fans, I must try frying the eggs with fried dace, no? So, the above is the ‘tau si chow tan’.
Of course, I do not normally eat cabai burung with soya sauce and white rice for my meals. But food bloggers must be creative and come up with something different, right?
I watch Gem of Life too, till Episode 42. It’s a nice drama and I love it 🙂
I love the fresh chilli fragrance too! It goes so well with fried hokkien noddle. yumm yumm..
I luv cili padi in soy sauce to go with my pan mee, koay teow teng, char hor fun, bah kut teh…
So how does the ‘tau si chow tan’ taste like?
I have used the tau si fried dace to cook with bitter gourd. Try lah, not bad wan!Just cut the bittergourd the way you like it, put it in a pan with the fried dace (cut fish into smaller pieces), add some water and braise till bitter gourd is cooked. The bitter gourd can be soft or crunchy, up to you. no need to add extra oil.
Eat with hot rice or porridge and cili padi in soy sauce.
Tomorrow, for lunch,I am going to cook this dish but before I do, I shall take out some fried dace and fry with eggs. I shall then be able to taste the ‘tau si chow tan’ liao! Wah, can’t wait!!
momo – Wuah, you make me so hungry, at 3 am! I am going to try the tau si, bitter gourd soon. The tau si chow tan really appetising wor.
allie – The chili padi from Malaysia, really damn kerng la. The Thailand ones don’t smell green-green like that.
molly – I eat three tiny ones with each meal. Hehehe.
jessen – Now they are talking about parma ham. I wish I can afford it but nowadays, our Malaysian Government doesn’t even allow parma ham to be imported from Italy anymore.